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earthquake

In the past few months I’ve been thinking about how quickly the story and aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan disappeared from the front pages of the mainstream news. I’ve been wondering about the recovery efforts and what in hell happened with those nuclear power plants. The Atlantic’s photo blog, In Focus, with Alan Taylor (creator of The Boston Globe’s popular Big Picture feature) at the helm, somewhat answers my question with a collection of before and after photos of Japan. The earthquake and tsunami hit Japan earlier this year on March 11th, and the devastation of the immediate aftermath seemed overwhelming. Clearly, a lot of work remains, but these photos (such as the one above) taken six months later reflect how remarkable the clean-up and recovery efforts have been.

While out in LA last week I dropped by the fantastic gallery Blum & Poe, which is currently exhibiting Zhang Huan’s “49 Days”, including the breathtaking installation pictured above. The twenty-two foot tall bell shaped pagoda is comprised of salvaged brick collected from demolition sites surrounding Shanghai (centuries old buildings that have been bulldozed in…

Tokyo Mango shared this heartwarming Japanese commercial promoting a new bullet train getting cheered on as it made its “debut trip across the southern island of Kyushu on March 12, just one day after the earthquake.” The spot was pulled from the airwaves for fears of insensitivity after the earthquake, but it quickly went viral…

While Greensburg, Kansas may have fallen off the media radar just a bit, the Midwestern town’s determination to rebuild green after an EF5 tornado leveled it in 2007 still provides a lot of inspiration. While I can’t say it for certain, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that Greensburg’s vision provided a model for the tiny village of Pescomaggiore, Italy.

I, like many a gay in this great land of ours, spent some formative years in San Francisco. There I hobnobbed among the liberal elite and leather queens in equal measure. It truly is a diverse city. And also, as anyone who’s lived there will attest, San Francisco is a beautiful city. The hills. The…